Editor:
The following letter is an edited version of one addressed to Rob Fleming, B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and shared with Coast Reporter.
Sir, I was very interested in your reply to John Henderson’s letter of August 25, 2022.
As you explain, our provincial government is subsidizing the BC Ferry Corporation with $600 million plus an additional $90 million from the Federal Government.
In 2000, a group of business people on the Sunshine Coast formed a committee to work with the Federal Government’s Transportation department to look at the feasibility of a Port Authority in the Port Mellon area of the Sunshine Coast. As a side issue, this committee looked at the transportation infrastructure and logistics serving the Sunshine Coast.
It included the movement of commercial traffic to and from Powell River. 99% of the commercial traffic came out through the Port of Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay. The study also pointed out that commercial traffic was the key to ferry overloads. On an average sailing, the commercial vehicles were displacing the car traffic by three cars per truck. On several sailings in both directions, the displacement was as high as 70 cars. The committee recommended that most of the commercial traffic could be re-routed from the barge loading ramp at Lynnterm Terminals through Burrard Inlet to Peninsula Transport in the Port Mellon area, alleviating the commercial traffic from the upper levels Highway and congestion at Horseshoe Bay. Corporations that have 10-to-20-year expansion plans would also be looking at a vessel direct from Powell River to Horseshoe Bay.
Living on the Sunshine Coast for 41 years and a good portion of this time working in the field of transportation logistics and cargo movement, I have seen this community grow to where it is today. I am quite sure you know that Horseshoe Bay is at its limit and already obsolete so, rearranging traffic patterns may be your only short-term option.
Jack Matthews, Sechelt
